


seas the day

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Boats and Ships, Gen, Light Romance, M/M, Near Drowning, Ocean, Sea Monsters, Vallite Soldiers Are Sea Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 03:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15765600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: He tried to imagine Niles fighting off evenoneVallite mer in the water by himself and then somehow dragging Odin’s unconscious body back up to the deck right after. The mental image was nothing short of incredible.





	seas the day

**Author's Note:**

> A fic I wrote on and off a few weeks ago and finished last night because of the nice folk who sent me a bunch of nice messages for Fanfic Author Appreciation Day. Thanks so much! This may not be my best fic, but I've always loved water imagery and Valla is full of that. So why not have an AU that takes place on the sea? It's been a long time coming.

Laslow fell overboard first.

Odin didn’t see him until Laslow had nearly disappeared over the side of the ship, and the fact that Odin saw him at all was a miracle in itself. The deck was in chaos. Tridents and swords clashed with a clatter as magic exploded dangerously overhead. Odin barely heard Laslow’s cry of surprise over the din of the rest of the shouting, and he spun on his heel just in time to see Laslow stagger back from the force of the trident in his shoulder, his face scrunched up in pain. The back of Laslow’s legs hit the dangerously low railing on the side of the deck. He wobbled backwards.

Odin lunged, but he was already too late. The Vallite mer, twinkling in and out of visibility with every ray of sunlight glinting off its ultra reflective scales, twisted the tips of its trident in Laslow’s shoulder and shoved a second time.

And with that, Laslow tumbled overboard.

Odin didn’t reach him in time. Didn’t even come close to grabbing Laslow, which twisted something awful in Odin’s chest. That didn’t mean he stopped running even after he registered the distant splash below of Laslow hitting the water. Odin didn’t stop at all, only slowing down briefly to press his palm against the slimy back of the unsuspecting Vallite mer and fire off a lightening spell as he passed.

Mages weren’t supposed to be close range fighters and they _definitely_ weren’t supposed to be touching the things they were fighting, so the kickback hurt. Sparks shot up Odin’s forearm painfully, racing across his skin and making his muscles spasm, but he ignored it and raced around the now fallen mer’s body instead.

Of course he heard Niles’s warning cry of _“You idiot! Don’t—”_

That was all he had time to catch before Odin jumped overboard.

Salty wind whipped past his face. Odin saw the foreign netting spread across the side of the ship, the javelins sticking out of the wood with rope tied taut at the ends, reaching down into the choppy waves below. All these things passed in a blur, and the ocean came up to meet him very quickly.

Odin hit the water.

The sea was cold and biting but not nearly frozen enough to force Odin to suck in a breath before he should have. They were lucky; it wasn’t yet winter.

Underwater, Odin’s clothes immediately weighed him down. No longer did Odin’s boots protect him from the rough Nohrian winds; instead they acted as two anchors, dragging him deeper down into the sea and making it harder for Odin to keep himself and his soaked clothing afloat.

Being in the water was dangerous on a good day.

Here? Surrounded by Vallite merfolk? It was practically suicide.

But for as heavy and dragging as Odin’s clothes had suddenly become, he was still wearing a standard _mage_ outfit. As far as surviving in the water went, Odin’s was much more well equipped to float.

Not like Laslow.

Odin pushed past the initial burn of saltwater and forced himself to open his eyes. His vision was blurry, of course, and with the water being as murky as it was, it took Odin almost a minute too long before he was able to spot Laslow’s struggling form sinking quickly into the darkness.

He swam down as fast as he could, grateful for the lungful of air he’d managed to suck in before he’d hit the water. He hoped it lasted.

The water was cool and dark, but the trail of blood leading from Laslow’s shoulder was still clear enough to follow.

Laslow went entirely limp just as Odin reached him, bubbles floating out of his mouth, and Odin’s heart sank. No doubt Laslow hadn’t had the time to take a breath of air before he’d fallen into the water. It didn’t even matter that Laslow had dropped his sword; the heavy shield strapped to his shoulder and the metal plating on Laslow’s shins did a well enough job forcing him to sink on their own.

Odin ignored Laslow’s limpness, his deathly pale skin, and felt for the straps keeping Laslow’s small shield attached to his arm. The first strap snapped apart easily, just as it was intended. The second strap took some work. For a moment Odin was struck with a fresh bolt of fear when the second strap failed to release just as quickly, but then suddenly it gave way. Laslow’s shield began to sink much faster than the man itself. After mere seconds, it was utterly invisible in the darkness.

In exchange for Laslow’s life, Odin didn’t consider it much of a loss.

Odin’s lungs had begun to ache. He knew it would take time they didn’t have to get rid of all the metal weighing Laslow down at once, so Odin didn’t bother. Instead, he hooked one arm around Laslow’s chest and swam up as hard as he could.

It was hard work. Odin couldn’t swim very well with his boots on, and Laslow was heavy. Distant sunlight shone through the waves overhead. Mind racing, Odin wondered when they had drifted so far from the surface.

They weren’t moving nearly as fast as they should have been. Odin thought he saw a flash of movement above them that might have been either a fish or a Vallite mer about to strike them dead, but there wasn’t time to examine that too closely. They had to get out of the water.

He pulled Laslow tighter and _kicked_.

Odin kept expecting to feel a hand on his ankle or a spear in his stomach. He didn’t.

His lungs burned something fierce, and the temptation to suck in a breath despite the lack of air was almost too strong to keep down.

Somehow, after both an eternity and sooner than expected, they breached the surface.

Odin gasped. He spat out a mouthful of seawater that had splashed into his mouth from the waves. He blinked saltwater out of his eyes, but his vision remained just as blurry as it had been underwater. He needed time out of the water to adjust.

They were still next to the ship—Odin could tell from the blur of brown wood and rope only a few feet out of reach—but he couldn’t see any Vallite merfolk about to drag them back into the depths. That didn’t mean they weren’t around, however. It was hard to see, and the ocean was their territory.

Shouts and the sharp clash of metal were still resounding out from the deck of the ship. The battle was still ongoing.

“Laslow,” he gasped. He turned, hoping to find Laslow awake and blearily staring back at him, but his friend was still limp and pale under his arm.

Odin couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. There was no way he could carry Laslow up to the deck of the ship on his own, but they couldn’t tread water forever. He did the only thing he could think to do.

He punched Laslow in the chest.

It wasn’t even a very hard punch. Odin was tired, and the second he spared to stop treading water almost pushed them under again.

But Laslow jerked as he made contact, eyes snapping open. He instantly began sputtering and coughing in Odin’s arms, gulping down fresh air. Odin had to take a moment to mentally assure himself that he’d made it in time—that Laslow hadn’t _really_ drowned yet, or else Odin simply punching him wouldn’t have worked. He’d just been waterlogged and out of it.

“Wha—” Laslow tried to speak, but his words got lost in another coughing fit.

Relieved, Odin pulled them both over to the side of the ship with some effort. By the time they reached the hull, Laslow had recovered enough to weakly grasp the netting pinned against the side of the ship on his own. Odin latched on next to him.

Somebody else fell overboard by the other end of the ship. Odin’s vision was already blurry from the constant fresh wave of ocean spray in his eyes, but the fact he had an even harder time than normal seeing the body before it hit the water told him all he needed to know. Whether the Vallite that had fallen was alive or not, they needed to get out of the water pronto. They were too vulnerable.

“Can you climb?” Odin asked, raising his voice above the sound of the sea and the shouting above. He tightened his grip on the netting.

Laslow nodded his head jerkily.

“Yeah,” he rasped, still coughing. “I can—I can climb.”

Laslow looked up and squinted as though judging the distance to the deck. He nodded to himself like he’d decided he could make it after all. Odin watched him flex his gloved hands against the net.

“Then do it,” Odin said after a beat when Laslow didn’t move.

Laslow blinked. His eyes looked red. Odin worried that he was still out of it.

There was another splash of something hitting the water. Odin didn’t look, but the shouting overhead suddenly got a lot louder.

“I’ll follow!” Odin added, his worry running thin as his nerves started to get the best of him. “Just go already!”

He shoved at Laslow and mostly only succeeded in splashing him, but it got the idea across. Laslow started climbing. Shaky, at first, but he climbed.

Once Laslow’s feet were more or less level with Odin’s head, Odin started to climb up after him. The holes in the netting weren’t very large, but they were numerous enough that it wasn’t difficult to find a foothold. Gripping the net with his fingers was easy enough as well.

Slowly, he pulled himself out of the water.

“Odin!”

Odin zeroed in on the shadowed silhouette of the man leaning over the edge of the deck. Laslow’s head snapped up as well.

“Niles!” Odin shouted back. “We’re coming! Don’t worry!” The battle wasn’t over yet. With Niles leaning over the side of the ship… “Don’t leave yourself open!”

“Moron!” Niles snapped, surprisingly terse. Odin realized with a start that Niles had pointed his bow and arrow down at them, ready to fire.

Laslow reeled back with surprise at Nile’s sudden callousness, reeled back the way Odin barely kept himself from doing. But then Laslow suddenly looked down towards Odin and the sea instead of Niles. His eyes widened. Odin had just enough time to register that maybe they should have kept moving when he felt a strangely strong hand suddenly clamp around his leg and _yank._

He yelped, scrambling to hold on to the netting as his leg dipped back into the water. Above him, Laslow held on to the side of the ship with one hand and reached down with the other.

The grip on Odin’s leg tightened. It pulled again, and despite how hard Odin kicked and pulled away, it was no use. The Vallite mer was just too strong. An arrow whizzed by Odin’s head—striking true, if the wet hiss below him was anything to go by—but it was already too late. Odin was slipping.

Then the mer surged up out of the water. Odin didn’t see it, but he heard the splash a split second before it grabbed Odin by his wet collar. The sheer force of the mer falling back into the sea, webbed fingers fixed like iron to the back of Odin’s neck, was more than enough to pull Odin off the net.

As he fell, he had just enough time to see Laslow’s still blurrily reaching out for him and Niles’s tense silhouette grow completely dark from the angle of the sun. Then Odin’s back hit the water for the second time that day.

He flailed immediately, not waiting to gather his bearings. The sting in his eyes had begun to lessen after the initial burn from the water, and Odin watched with panic as the distance between himself and the shadow of the boat grew larger.

Something slim whizzed past the side of Odin’s head. An arrow.

It didn’t get very far. The water slowed down its momentum too much, and the arrow barely reached the water parallel to Odin’s chest before it stopped and began to float back up. Odin reached for the arrow without thinking, his fingers wrapping around the shaft before the mer could pull him down by the waist any further.

Water resistance was a hell of a thing, but Niles’s arrows were sharp and Odin had some practice fighting in the water. The mer was confident too, or perhaps simply uncaring. It didn’t matter. Odin jabbed the tip of the arrow into the arm wrapped around his chest.

Dark Vallite blood bloomed like a watery cloud. The mer hissed in pain in Odin’s ear, releasing him.

It was a miracle beyond miracles, and Odin didn’t waste it. He kicked away from the mer, swimming faster than he thought possible. Odin’s fingers brushed real air before he felt the mer’s arms around his legs again, pulling him back down.

Odin wanted to yell. His lungs were already screaming for air, and he was so _close_. But no human could outswim a shark. Or a monster of a merman, in this case.

He should have seen it coming when he felt the razor-sharp teeth clamp down on his shoulder, but the sudden pain startled him so badly that Odin opened his mouth to yelp.

He regretted it instantly, but the damage was done. Odin’s lungs spasmed as water suddenly filled them, his chest ablaze, but his body’s natural reaction to the sudden intrusion of water—coughing—only served to help him drown faster.

And he _was_ drowning. Odin flailed, reaching for the surface. He could nearly feel the warmth of the sun. He was so _close_. But already his vision was growing dark.

The scaled arm around his torso tightened, and the last precious air bubbles escaped Odin’s lungs. Another one of Nile’s arrows hit the water, not even close to hitting either Odin or the Vallite.

The awful burn in Odin’s chest grew distant. The water had felt cool against Odin’s skin, but now he couldn’t feel anything at all.

Something might have crashed into the water above them, but Odin was already slipping under.

 

 

 

Odin woke up coughing.

“Oh, shit,” someone said, sounding panicked and relieved all at once.

Someone else, voice gruff, said, “Come on. Turn over.”

Odin wanted to—thought it would probably make breathing a lot easier—but he couldn’t move until a pair of hands gripped his shoulder and helped him turn onto his side. Those same hands avoided touching Odin’s throbbing shoulder, for which he was grateful. He turned onto his side and retched.

“Give him space,” a new voice said. Odin dimly recognized it as Elise. He thought he should have recognized the other voices as well, but then he was coughing up what felt like literal buckets of seawater, so he didn’t have much attention to spare.

It felt though Odin had coughed up most of the sea by the time he recovered enough to stop. His chest hurt something awful. Odin took in wheezing breaths. But he could, eventually, _breathe_ , and even he realized among the aches and pains that breathing was the important thing.

Elise said, “This might help,” and Odin felt the minty tingle of healing magic on his skin.

He breathed out. Some of the soreness in Odin’s lungs had lessened. His ribs felt a little less like somebody had hit him with a sledgehammer.

“Th—thanks,” he gasped. Odin pushed himself up upright, feeling the grainy wood of the deck under his fingertips. He squinted up into the sun.

Laslow leaned over Odin, his hands on his knees. He looked decidedly worried, but when he caught Odin’s eye, Laslow’s face broke out into a large smile.

“Hey there,” Laslow said gently. “How are you feeling, Mr. Hero?”

Odin coughed weakly. “A little less heroic than I thought heroes would feel.”

Laslow laughed.

“Don’t let Selena hear you say that,” he said.

Odin grimaced. Selena was on the other ship with Lady Camilla, but Odin could already hear her chewing him out for doing something so foolish as jumping in the water with Vallite soldiers around, though he knew she would have done the same thing had she been the one to spot Laslow fall overboard. He still wasn’t looking forward to the lecture though.

He looked to his left and saw Elise standing there, hands wrapped around her healing rod. Scattered behind her around the rest of the ship, Odin saw their other allies resting and in various states of cooling down. There were no signs of any more Vallite mer hanging around. Peri was leaning over the side of the ship and pulling spears out of the hull.

“How are you feeling?” Elise asked, sounding professional despite her young face. “Better? Do you need to lay down?”

Odin nodded weakly, grateful. “Yes.”

 _To both_ , he meant. He did feel better, and even though he was still sitting on the deck, he would have liked to have laid down on his side for a few hours anyway.

Elise nodded like she understood. Her eyes flickered over his shoulder. Odin turned to follow her gaze.

On the other side of himself, Odin found Niles sitting next to him, leaning back on his hands. Niles looked tired but relieved. He also looked just as soaking wet as Odin felt.

“Hey,” Odin rasped. His sluggish brain struggled to understand why Niles was wet.

Niles lifted his chin in greeting. “Hey.”

Elise looked between the two of them. She shared a look with Laslow that Odin couldn’t read. Laslow nodded reluctantly.

He leaned down and squeezed Odin’s good shoulder. Odin’s other shoulder felt considerably better after that wave of Elise’s magic, but there was still a dull ache.

“Thank you,” Laslow said quietly. This time his smile looked a little pained.

Odin was pretty sure they’d be having a talk later, but he smiled back anyway and said, “Of course. Anytime.”

“I’ll check up on you again in a minute,” Elise added.

She and Laslow were called away by a well-timed comment from Xander. Odin watched them go. Laslow’s clothes were still wet, his hair still mostly flat against his head, and Odin didn’t miss the uneasy expression on Xander’s face as Elise and Laslow approached either. Knowing Laslow had nearly been the one to drown instead of Odin probably didn’t sit well in his lord’s mind.

Speaking of which…

Odin looked at Niles again. Took in his wet clothes and his expectant look.

“Did you… jump in after me?” he asked Niles. His voice croaked again. He could have definitely gone for some fresh water.

“No,” Niles said flatly. “I just felt like taking a quick dip.”

Odin ignored the sarcasm. He licked his dry lips and tasted salt.

“That was really dumb,” he said honestly.

Niles snorted. “Yes, well. Stupid is contagious, it seems.”

Odin nodded. Then he flopped back against the deck of the ship.

“Hey!” Niles said sharply, leaning over Odin’s face and blocking the sun. It was only a trick of the sunlight, Odin knew, but a halo framed Niles’s wet hair. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“What?” Odin blinked up at Niles’s tense face. “Oh, no, sorry. I’m just tired.”

It wasn’t an exaggeration. He was very tired. So tired that it was difficult to string more than a few words together in a sentence. Odin was pretty sure he was going to be fine after a nap or three.

Niles sighed, his shoulders sagging. He looked Odin for a moment, clearly thinking. Odin waited quietly until Niles laid down next to him. Niles laid close enough that Odin got the feeling he might have laid on Odin’s shoulder if—Odin glanced at his injury—his shoulder didn’t mostly consist of scabbed over teeth marks and pink stains.

“You,” Niles said, staring up at the sun, “are going to be the death of me.”

That might have been true. Odin would have felt bad about it if he hadn’t felt so much like smiling.

“Maybe,” he said. “But you were definitely the life of me today, friend.”

Niles gave him another look. He reached up and brushed some of Odin’s hair away from his forehead. When he was done, Niles’s didn’t pull away. He laid his hand against Odin’s cheek, and Odin could feel the strain of the muscles in his cheek from the way he smiled.

They were laying in the middle of the deck and undoubtedly others were watching, could see them plain as day, but Odin didn’t particularly care.

Niles closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose.

“Don’t go jumping into the sea mid-battle again,” he said tiredly. “Or at least give me a better warning.”

“I’ll try,” Odin said. “No guarantees.”

Niles made a sound. “There never are with you.”

A huff of air that might have been a laugh left Odin’s mouth. His chest barely hurt anymore, but it still felt better to lay there and not do anything than to be too happy to fast. He couldn’t help it though; he’d nearly died merely minutes ago, but he was still suddenly overcome with the feeling of the sun overhead and the wood under his back and Niles very close to his face.

He tried to imagine Niles fighting off even _one_ Vallite mer in the water by himself and then somehow dragging Odin’s unconscious body back up to the deck right after. The mental image was nothing short of incredible. It wasn’t unheard of for humans to win a fight between mer, even in the water, but it would have been a hell of a fight. Niles didn’t look too banged up though, Odin noted. He decided he’d ask more about it later, when he wasn’t so tired. When salt wasn’t still drying on his skin and Niles’s slowly drying lion’s mane of a haircut wasn’t so distracting.

Odin reached up and pressed his hand on top of Niles’s own, simply feeling the weight of Niles’s hand on his cheek and the warmth between them.

 _“Odin! Niles!”_ Leo’s far off shouts jolted Odin out of his reverie. He and Niles sat up with some haste, and Odin spotted Leo waving from the deck of their sister ship. _“I saw you_ jump _off the ship! Are you both alright?”_

They scrambled to their feet, and Odin stumbled his way over to the side of their own ship, Niles at his heels. He hit the railing harder than intended, his sea legs briefly forsaking him, but Niles’s hand on his good shoulder kept him from going overboard a second time.

“Fine!” Odin shouted back. “What about you?”

Somewhere in the background, he heard Xander saying that the two ships would be maneuvering closer to one another momentarily, so shouting wasn’t really necessary if they would just wait, but Odin paid the crown prince little mind.

On the opposite deck, Leo threw his head back in such a way that Odin knew was a sign of an oncoming headache.

 _“_ I _didn’t jump off the ship!”_

Behind him, Niles laughed.

“No,” he said, sounding like he was speaking mostly to himself, even when Odin glanced over his shoulder to give him a look. “Never a dull moment at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/) I get a lot of FE14 meta and fic related asks there, so feel free to browse through my "asks" or "fe14" tag for some extra stuff from me and your fellow readers you may not see over here. Or send in a question of your own if you had one! Thanks for reading!


End file.
